If you’d told me a year ago that I’d consider a Viking comic one of December’s most anticipated new releases, I’d probably have been fairly sceptical. More so if you’d told me that it’d be coming from Brian Wood, who’s made his name writing a mix of hip indie, street-level blockbusters and the odd politically-tilted piece of speculative fiction. And yet, here we are. Northlanders #1 is the latest attempt by Vertigo to show they’ll go where other publishers probably wouldn’t dare. It’s certainly got a credible name on it, but since the only other viking comics I can recall are Groo and Hagar the Horrible, it feels like a fairly risky move.

Of course - no-one need have worried, because Wood simply goes from strength to strength and hasn’t had anything even resembling a flop since his first Vertigo mini, Fight for Tomorrow,scooted neatly under everyone’s radar after a fairly big launch - and even that was almost 5 years ago. If anyone can make this work, it’s him. Northlanders is Vikings done by way of TV’s Deadwood - even the hero of the piece is hard-talking, lustful and violent, and while he doesn’t talk like a viking, the curse-filled and blunt tone of the writing echos the spirit of the time, if not the letter of it. The first arc, Sven the Returned, focuses the titular hero, a cosmopolitan young Viking who returns to the home he abandoned to collect what’s rightfully his - his dead father’s money. When he gets there he finds his uncle has taken control of the village and with it, Sven’s money. After receiving a severe beating from his uncle’s goons, Sven vows to move on with his life and forget the past he feels no connection to. What are the odds that’ll happen?

In a way, this is the most out-there comic Wood has ever written, yet on closer examination, it’s actually not that different from his others. Wood’s signature themes are all present - family, homecoming, honour and obligation - these are things you can find as the subtext in a lot of his work. Perhaps, then, that’s why Northlanders works so well. It’s not simply concerned with being “the viking comic” but with telling good stories about good characters who also happen to be vikings.

Art comes from Davide Gianfelice who, I believe, makes his US comics debut. Wood has collaborated with European artists before, notably on his other vertigo series, DMZ , and it brings his comics a unique flavour. It seems that the language of comic art from mainland Europe is as different to their American counterparts as Italian is to English, and just as I never tire of Burchielli on DMZ, I can imagine the art in Northlanders will continue to delight with each new issue.

It’s a big day for DMZ as it starts its third year. This is a real milestone to anyone who remembers the days when the comic was conceived as being around 24 issues long (the current target is somewhere around 60)  because any issue from now on should taste extra-sweet.

For this arc, entitled “The Hidden War”,  Wood is once again proving his mastery of the single-issue format by telling the stories of individuals and side-characters living in the DMZ while the main cast largely sit it out. This issue specifically focuses on Wilson, the former gangster who now runs Chinatown, and shows us how he got where he is today in a story stretching right back to the start of the war and ending shortly after the series begins. As one of the series’ more colourful characters, it’s good to see what Wilson’s story is, and ultimately what drives him.

Guest art for this issue is provided by Danijel Sezelj. It has a brilliantly bleak feeling, and a sequence where a bomb explodes, leaving the art temporarily black and white before the colour slowly fades back in is a masterful use of the comics form. Unfortunately, based on the preview pages that were posted on Newarama’s Blog it all should’ve looked so, so much better. The printing job has left the pages incredibly muddy and it’s a real shame to see the art suffering from it.

While I’m thinking about it - DMZ #25, and in fact this entire arc (which began in #23) is a good place for anyone to join the series in progress if they’re interested in it. Because they’re all single-issue stories, they give you an excellent flavour of the series and of Wood’s writing without needing you to know any of the backstory. You should give it a try if you haven’t.